January 6, 2010

Are you watching Dr. Oz's TV show?  If not, you're missing out on some great health tidbits 5 times a week, but you're also cheating yourself out of excellent motivational diet and exercise info right now.  Like lots of shows this week, the Dr. Oz show is focusing on helping viewers with their weight loss and fitness goals.

I accidentally caught one of Dr. Oz's shows in an evening re-run, and now I try to have it on when I'm home even if I can't sit in front of the TV.  You might think that an entire show devoted to health every day would be a bore and a drag, but it's not.  It's interesting and usually important, and sometimes a tad embarrassing or even gross!  But I've already learned some things I never heard before.

I loved the show this week that gave us a 14-Day Plan to reboot our body.  It's from the book “You On a Diet” that Dr. Oz co-authored with Dr. Michael Roizen.  To make it super easy for us, they've given us this PDF file that you can print out and refer to.

To get you started, Day 1 of the plan includes a 30-minute walk, 3 to 5 minutes of stretching, and a kitchen purge that eliminates all traces of simple sugars and syrups, trans fats, saturated fats, and all flours except for whole grain or whole wheat.  After that, we're to restock our kitchen with the healthy staples we'll need going forward.  I'd call that a pretty full and productive Day 1!

I'm also fascinated with Dr Oz's 28-Day Raw Food Challenge, since I just committed to a vegan diet for 2010.  According to the web site, the health benefits of this challenge are:

• Increased energy
• Improved skin appearance
• Better digestion
• Weight loss
• Reduced risk of heart disease

I'm absolutely going to include some raw meals in my vegan diet, but don't think I'm quite up for this challenge just yet.  Maybe soon though!  Who knows what would happen to my poor ol' bod if I went from vegetarian straight to 100% raw vegan.  I'm guessing I'd have a few adjustment issues, but would ultimately feel awesome.  🙂  There could be a few tough days in there though!

If you check out Dr. Oz, let me know if you pick up any great tips.  I'm a fan and think you might be too!

~BigSis